Frey struck out nine and walked no one in a win for the GreenJackets
There’s no baseball quite like Sunday baseball, and to cap off the week all four Atlanta Braves affiliates had tightly contested daytime matchups. Mississippi scraped through for a hard-fought one run victory, while down in Single-A Augusta came out on top of a slug fest.
(12-14) Gwinnett Stripers 0, (12-15) Norfolk Tides 2
- JP Martinez, LF: 1-4, 2B, .278/.363/.444
- Allan Winans, SP: 7 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 2.86 ERA
The Gwinnett Stripers offense is in the toilet at the moment, and despite a solid start from Allan Winans the lack of production led to a loss on Sunday afternoon. The Gwinnett offense had only two hits on the day against the Tides, and none of their batted balls cleared 100 mph. The lone extra base hit for Gwinnett took until there were two outs in the ninth inning, where JP Martinez smacked a ball off of the wall in left center field, but a strikeout ended a disappointing showing for the Stripers.
On the other end of the spectrum Stripers starter Allan Winans pitched a game certainly worthy of more run support than Gwinnett gave him, filling up seven innings and allowing only two runs. Naturally his changeup was the go-to pitch for him and despite not finishing many at bats with strikeouts he was able to induce weak contact and get himself in favorable counts frequently. Still he wasn’t able to escape without mistakes, twice in the game leaving pitches over the heart of the plate that the Tides jumped on. Neither of those home runs were exactly no-doubters, both hitting off the top of the wall, but they were also clear mistakes that major league hitters would also be expected to take advantage of.
(7-14) Mississippi Braves 3, (11-10) Montgomery Biscuits 2
- Keshawn Ogans, 3B: 3-4, 2B, .227/.271/.258
- Drake Baldwin, DH: 0-4, .262/.333/.354
- Ian Mejia, SP: 4.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 3.13 ERA
The clear top position player prospect for the Braves among their full season players in Nacho Alvarez, but it was mentioned yesterday that he has missed a little time lately and today was the same as he was out of the lineup for the third time out of the last four Mississippi games. In his absence though the lineup still produced enough, tallying 10 hits including a big day from one in desperate need of it. Keshawn Ogans has struggled out of the four spot for Mississippi this season, running a sub-.500 OPS coming into Sunday’s action. Ogans had a good game on Saturday, but was nevertheless dropped down to the sixth spot in the order. Ogans seemed to respond to this change by leading the team with three hits. He has really struggled with making consistent hard contact, but when given a pitch up in the zone in the fourth inning he turned on one and ripped it into left field, banging one off of the top of the wall for a double. Mississippi would maintain their one-run deficit until the seventh inning, where Ogans would get the frame started off with a single. A hit from Bryson Horne later in the inning tied the game, and the other player who made a huge impact in the game put the Braves on top. Cody Milligan has had a strong weekend with six hits across two games, and the final one of those seven was the biggest. Milligan split the game with a two-out fly ball, scoring Horne and giving Mississippi a lead they would hold until the final out.
Ian Mejia has had a fairly strong start to the season, piling up strikeouts at a solid rate primarily thanks to his curveball, and has four total runs allowed in his past four starts. Today was the worst of those four, as he struggled with his efficiency and couldn’t complete five innings. Mejia had trouble allowing baserunners all throughout his outing, but the hard contact was limited until a changeup he left in a dangerous spot in the third inning turned into a two-run home run. The bullpen pitched a phenomenal game behind him, going 4 2⁄3 inning with no runs allowed. The best among those was Patrick Halligan, who struck out four of the five batters he faced. Halligan has done this all season, with a 0.90 ERA, a 43.6% strikeout rate, and a walk rate of just 5.1%.
(10-9) Rome Emperors 2, (9-12) Winston-Salem Dash 5
- Kevin Kilpatrick Jr., DH: 1-4, .325/.368/.513
- Sabin Ceballos, 3B: 0-3, HBP, .224/.329/.284
- Drue Hackenberg, SP: 2.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 5 BB, 2 K, 5.51 ERA
Drue Hackenberg got the start and struggled with his command in this one. Hackenberg lasted short of three innings at two and two thirds, giving up four runs on five hits and five walks with a pair of strikeouts. He threw just 44 of his 77 pitches for strikes and clearly didn’t have his command early. He was relieved by Chad Bryant, who threw three innings and allowed an unearned run while walking four and striking out one. Then Rolddy Munoz threw two and a third scoreless while picking up five strikeouts to finish off this one for the pitching staff.
The offense struggled in this one even more than the final score would indicate. The two runs came in via solo homers from Bryson Worrell and EJ Exposito, but beyond that there were just two singles and three walks received to account for all of the Rome base runners. Ambioris Tavarez drew one of those walks during an 0-3, three strikeout afternoon, while Stephen Paolini and Kevin Kilpatrick accounted for the rest of the Rome hits.
(10-11) Augusta GreenJackets 9, (12-8) Columbia Fireflies 8
- Jace Grady, DH: 3-5, 2 RBI, .267/.345/.467
- Riley Frey, SP: 5.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, 2.20 ERA
Riley Frey’s excellent start to the season continued on Sunday. He allowed three runs (two earned) over five and a third, increasing his ERA to 2.20, but he also struck out nine batters in just over five innings. Frey not only struck out almost two per inning, but did so without issuing a walk. Zack Austin was next and he allowed three unearned runs over his inning of work, then two more from William Silva in an inning and two thirds. Giomar Diaz came in to pitch the ninth and pick up the save, walking two and also striking out two.
The offense was really there on Sunday as Augusta went for nine runs and multiple players had big games. Jace Grady and Will Verdung each had three hits, two RBI, and a stolen base to lead the offense, with Verdung also having a double. Kade Kern and Drew Compton each had two hit afternoons, with Kern also taking a walk to reach base three times in the win. Among the prospects Diego Benitez was hitless in five at bats.